'Mourinho knows United are bigger than Chelsea'
SAMUEL STEVENS
So here it is then. A Premier League season like no other, one which has been in the making for years. José Mourinho, the Special One at the special club, has finally landed his emploi de rêve at Manchester United. City’s five-year courtship of Pep Guardiola proved too tempting for the Catalan to turn down.
50 minutes down the M62, Jürgen Klopp has been afforded until 2022 to fine tune his heavy-metal brand of gegenpress football at Liverpool. Chelsea, meanwhile, have turned to a frenzied, restless Italian, Antonio Conte, to resuscitate the corpse left behind by Mourinho last December.
Of the top-flight's self-proclaimed super clubs, only Arsenal, whose stability is beginning to smell of stagnation, and north London rivals Tottenham have the same managers they started last season with. The root cause of English football’s recent volatility can be found on the banks of the River Soar, at the home of champions Leicester City.
That prefix is as peculiar to write as it is to read. “It’s a long season,” muses Glenn Hoddle. “I've always said it's a Grand National, not a sprint.”
The former England, Southampton and Tottenham manager was one of those who prophesied a year of struggle for Leicester 12 months ago. With a militia of world-class managers bound for the Premier League, more tears are likely to be shed by the establishment this season regardless of whether Leicester can do the unthinkable and retain their crown.
Hoddle continues: “Six don’t go into four, does it? I believe that what Leicester did last year caught out everybody in football, me included. I expected them to suffer. But credit to everybody at that football club, it was a footballing miracle what they did.
“But when you set a standard is one thing; to keep that same standard is another thing, I can tell you. That is why the best players have a career and the best clubs go for longevity over a long time. This is the test that Leicester have got: can they keep up that standard that they have set themselves?
“I have got to say, it was fantastic what they did for football. Do I see them challenging for the top four this year? Probably not. I think they will be in mid-table, eighth or 10th, something like that. I don’t think they will be fighting relegation.”
It’s remarkable that relegation is even fathomable for the champions of England, but these are strange times. While Guardiola’s appointment at the Etihad is the culmination of years of work, United’s decision to turn to Mourinho is a direct response to the helter-skelter events of last year. Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba have followed the Portuguese to Old Trafford.
“There's a pressure there, without a doubt,” Hoddle adds. “I think he knows now that he might have thought Chelsea was a big club. I think he knows now that Manchester United is a bigger club. Through his pre-season he'll realise the expectations are massive. But then again you've got to look at his pedigree, he's already managed Real Madrid which is probably the biggest in the world.
“He won't fear anything about taking that job on. What he will do is get his impressions across to his players, how he wants that team to play.” Getting a message across to his players is a forte of Guardiola’s, too, a footballing maniac and insatiable winner wherever he goes.
“I think he knows [what to expect]. I think that's a really intriguing situation because I think he knows it's the biggest test he's going to have. I think having been at Barcelona all his life and knowing the players and the system and playing as dominant as they were is wonderful.
“And then going to Bayern and having that, they're the dominant force in Germany. Manchester City now probably thought they might have been in a more dominant scenario over the last five or six years but they're not. You know it's still very open if they're going to win the league or do well in the Champions League. So this is going to be a test for him.
“Going to Middlesbrough away from home on a Tuesday night - or a Stoke as we always say - I don't think in Germany or Spain he would have experienced that sort of thing that he's going to experience. He's got to learn very quickly about the culture of the game here.”
After getting their fingers burnt by Leicester last season, everyone’s pre-season picks for relegation, it’s perhaps unsurprising that pundits and former managers alike are loathed to shout their predications from the rooftops this time around.
58-year-old Hoddle muses: “Coming up in the car I was contemplating which team [could win it]. In the Derby, there is usually a favourite. You never have six horses – I just can’t pick between six teams, it is going to be that tight. There are so many permutations that clubs are going through.
“The two Manchester clubs have got new managers in, new philosophies, new ways of playing, new players being brought in. It might take a little bit of time for them to hit the road running. You have got Arsenal and Tottenham who have probably got the most stable squads at the moment.
“But the new coach at Chelsea is the one I am most interested in seeing how he goes – whether he will play with three at the back. That will be completely different to the way they have played for the last 10 or 12 years. There are so many permutations there for clubs I don’t think you can actually pick a favourite. I think you would be having a real guess and a real punt.” – The Independent